Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations

White House Marshals Money, Focus To Combat Heroin Epidemic

The Obama administration plan, unveiled Monday, is a response to the nation's mounting problem with heroin abuse. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, use of this drug has more than doubled among people aged 18-25 in the United States in the past decade.

The New York Times:
U.S. Budgets Cash To Treat Heroin Abuse In Northeast
The funding — a sliver of the $25.1 billion that the government spends every year to combat drug use — will help create a new “heroin response strategy” aimed at confronting the increase in use of the drug. A recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that heroin-related deaths had nearly quadrupled between 2002 and 2013. “The Heroin Response Strategy will foster a collaborative network of public health-public safety partnerships to address the heroin/opioid epidemic,” said the announcement by the policy office. “The aim will be to facilitate collaboration between public health and public safety partners within and across jurisdictions, sharing best practices, innovative pilots, and identifying new opportunities to leverage resources.” (Shear, 8/17)

Los Angeles Times:
White House Announces Push To Combat Growing Heroin Epidemic
About $2.5 million from President Obama's anti-drug programs will target heroin abuse in New England, Appalachia and East Coast cities, and $1.3 million will go to fight trafficking on the border with Mexico, drug czar Michael Botticelli said. Public health coordinators will monitor heroin use and issue warnings regarding dangerous batches of the drug. Public safety coordinators will work with law enforcement to stem illegal imports. Botticelli emphasized the benefits that would come from cooperation between public health officials and law enforcement. (Toman-Miller, 8/17)

USA Today:
White House Launches New Heroin Strategy
While the grants don't provide any new money — only Congress can do that — the new heroin strategy is "targeting the resources we have already to deal with our biggest drug threats," Botticelli said. But critics of the national drug policy say the announcement is "one step forward, two steps back." “Half of what they’re doing is right – the focus on health and overdose prevention – but the other half, the side that focuses on the failed arrest and incarceration policies of the past is destined to ruin lives and fail,” said Bill Piper, director of the Drug Policy Alliance’s office of national affairs. (Korte, 8/17)

Reuters:
White House Launches Plan To Counter Explosion In Heroin Use
The move is a response to a sharp rise in the use of heroin and opiate-based painkillers, which the U.S. Centers for Disease Control has described as an epidemic. Heroin use has more than doubled among people aged 18-25 in the United States in the past decade, according to CDC figures, while overdose death rates have nearly quadrupled. An estimated 45 percent of U.S. heroin users are also addicted to prescription painkillers. (8/17)